Topic: Peace and Justice in Palestine/Israel Posted: 16 October 2005 at 8:52pm

Salamaat,
We need letters written. I'm including a sample letter that came with the
following Memo from Gush Shalom
Sharon and Mofaz are still at provoking good people into desperate acts
...but the shepherds of Aqaba don't make headlines - a request for letter
writing

International release
October 17, 2005

We were preparing a message about Aqaba when there came the news of
the killing of three West Bank settlers. Two young women and a teen-age
boy killed, and others wounded in two simultaneous Palestinian
ambushes. The acts were claimed as retaliation for several recent killings
of Palestinians - among them a senior militia leader at Jenin, as well as of
three young Palestinians at the border of the recently evacuated Gaza
Strip.

The wider context of such horror is that in the West Bank bitterness is on
the rise. Negotiations between Sharon and Abu Mazen, or Peres and
Erekat fail before they really start and it also doesn't give people much
hope to see that in Gaza, after the withdrawal, the siege is not over and
that for every inch forward is needed months of hackling.

Of course, the many people who are not involved in acts of violence pay
the price. As just announced on Israeli TV, Defence Minster Mofaz reacted
by denying to Palestinian motorists the use of main West Bank highways,
reimposing sieges on the Palestinian cities and imposing numerous
checkpoints and roadblocks which were removed in the past months. (see
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/635373.html).

And now Aqaba.
By phone we got a bit of urgent news from the tiny village of Aqaba,
south-east of Jenin - a place where there had never been any violent
outbreak during the present or previous Intifada. Rather, the struggle of
Aqaba's few hundred inhabitants - and a hard, ongoing struggle it is -
consists of maintaining their daily routine of life, in face of a never-
ending harassment by the army.

This morning, soldiers have confiscated some fifty sheep belonging to the
Dabak family of Aqaba - the entire herd which provides meagre livelihood
to a family of thirteen. The 16-year old shepherd Muhammad Dabak went
to the army outpost, asking for the sheep to be released. He was beaten
up by the soldiers, and kept for several hours at the army position with
his hands tied behind his back. Finally, he was sent away empty-handed -
the sheep are still there.

This seems the peak of a new campaign of harassment which began two
weeks ago, targetting especially the tiny village's sheep herds. Sheep were
confiscated, as were the ID's of shepherds - who were afterwards
harassed or detained for the offence of... going abroad without an ID.
And the army also systematically set on fire the grazing fields in the
mountains around Akaba, with the clear purpose of denying fodder to the
sheep.

Occupation officials have made no secret of their opinion that Aqaba "just
should not be there', in the midst of what is considered "a strategic
military area". In the past, several earlier ploys - such as declaring all the
village homes to be "illegally built" - were defeated by international
protests, showing to the government and the army that what happens at
such godforsaken corners of the West Bank does become known to the
world at large. We ask you once again to participate in such a campaign.

Please write to the addresses in the end, either using the enclosed sample
letter or making your own text.
[

Dear Sir

Again I have to address you about Aqaba, a place where there had never
been any violent outbreak - neiher during the present nor the previous
Intifada. But it is in Aqaba that the Israeli military units in recent weeks
resorted to violent harassment against the village's shepherds. We were
informed about such acts as the confiscation of sheep herds, the
detention and beating up of shepherds as well as confiscation of the
I.D.'s, and the setting on fire of grazing grounds in the mountains around
Aqaba.

Specifically, I call upon you to take care that the army return forthwith to
its owners, the Dabak family of Aqaba, the herd of about fifty sheep
confiscated on the morning of October 16. Further, the military
authorities must find and punish the soldiers who had humiliated, beaten
up and detained in harsh conditions the 16-year old Muhammad Dabak,
whose sole crime was asking for the release of the sheep.

As the authority over an occupied population it is up to you to investigate
the arbitrary cruelty of your soldiers and correct such things when you are
informed about them. The international community holds you
responsible. Hurling accusations of terrorism can provide no excuse for
what is done to innocent people who are completely in your power.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
From Oct.14 - Nov.15, Palestinian Ayed Morrar and Israeli Jonathan Pollak
will be touring the US speaking about Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine.
They can be heard in New York, North Carolina, Washington D.C.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Olympia
Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida and Philadelphia.

Thank you for this information, it is good to have you back telling us about how things are in the holy land. May Allah have Mercy on the innocents and give strength and patience to those who try to do something about the awful situations there.

This is merely one of scores of stupid acts of callousness that occur
every day in Palestine. While nothing excuses terror - nothing excuses
this lack of professionalism and gratuitous cruelty.

Every letter written to a politician is an indication of what "other people"
think.
Truthfully You and I don't really stay up nights worrying or caring what
other people think. We are grown ups. We do the best I can to do the
right thing especially when there isn't a gun to our heads and we live in a
system that claims to be a working democracy.

Politicians are like teenagers or theatre arts people.
They care a lot about what other people think.

As long as we are on the subject of terror...
As You may know the Hamas has been democratically elected to lead
Palestine. There are some interesting things I'd like to share with you
about this organization.

1.) They were funded and organized early on in 1987 by the Mossad
(Israeli secret service) to destabilize Fatah (Arafat's people) The real face
of Palestine was emerging at the time. They were looking more and more
like abused human beings and we the Israeli's were looking more and
more like monsters.
Hamas was not going to tolerate a secular government. They intended to
irradicate infidelity. In short they were "crazy" in the minds of our people
at Mossad and they (Hamas) were going to seriously delay any hope of a
Palestinian homeland of any kind. This sort of worked but in a Monkeys
Paw sort of way (that would be that awful story about these desperate
people who conjure the dark magic of the monkeys paw only to
understand why we should all be careful what we wish for.

Between the Hamas' Blowing up of two Tel Aviv buses, our own Baruch
Goldstien (Israeli Terrorist) and Yigal Amir (the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin)
in 1995. The peace process was derailed.

Much like American's great success with the Taliban or Sadam Hussien for
that matter, everyone in the government here as well as in America are
reacting like a bunch of Shocked English Nannies.

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